The current approach for communication system expansion for U.S. military communications systems is to replace existing or legacy communication equipment with an entire new system. This is typically due to legacy equipment having been designed and optimized to support a single method of communicating (called a waveform), such that it becomes impractical to modify such legacy equipment to support other communication techniques. Historically, the designs of the legacy equipment have been primarily implemented with hardware circuitry that cannot be modified once the equipment has been fielded. Some portions of the designs have been implemented with microprocessors running software applications designed uniquely for the particular equipment.
With the adoption of software defined radios and the Government's Software Communication Architecture, those limitations will no longer constrain system upgrades. However, realization of that benefit necessitates the procurement and fielding of communication systems that employ these new approaches. These new systems are under development but are projected to be fielded at a significant weight, power usage, size, and cost.
Because legacy communication equipment is designed for specific waveform operation, adding new capabilities requires redesign and replacement of the original radio. Typically, the new capabilities are so different from the original that significant modifications to the supporting platform are also required, resulting in a cost that can be larger than the replacement radio. These platform modifications can include, for example, additional system connections, additional platform DC power conditioning (or duplication of the power conditioning in the replacement radio), replacement radio shock isolation/mounting tray unit, and others. Installation of the replacement system, with the necessary platform modifications, requires the platform served by the communication system be taken out of service and returned to a depot maintenance facility for the work to be performed.
It is desirable to provide a module that can connect with an existing or legacy communication device in such a manner that the module provides additional capabilities to the existing device without the need for wholesale removal and exchange of the existing device with a new device.